NASA Considers Prize
Challenge for Extreme-Environment Science (Source: NASA)
Many potential NASA planetary science missions are to destinations
where scientific measurements will need to be conducted in extreme
environments. As described in the attachment, NASA is considering the
use of a Challenge driven prize competition approach to accelerate
development and demonstration of key technologies for these missions.

The purposes of this RFI are: (1) gather feedback on the competition
being considered, the prize amounts and distribution structure, (2) to
determine the level of interest in potentially competing in various
phases of this Challenge, and (3) understand the applicability of the
challenge capabilities for other terrestrial applications. Click here.
(8/22)

NSBRI and NASA Seek Space
Radiation Research Proposals (Source: Space Daily)
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is soliciting
for program proposals to establish a Center for Space Radiation
Research (CSRR). The CSRR will build upon important discoveries made by
the NSBRI Center of Acute Radiation Research and extend them by
characterizing and quantifying the effects of space radiation on living
systems.

Operating in close partnership with NASA's Human Research Program, the
CSRR will be tasked with researching the acute effects of space
radiation, as well as the longer term, so-called "degenerative" effects
of space radiation on the cardiovascular and circulatory systems. (8/22)

Spacewalking Russians
Stumped by Faulty Equipment (Source: Florida Today)
A pair of spacewalking cosmonauts had to give up on their main job
Thursday, thwarted by a misaligned platform for a yet-to-be-launched
telescope. Making their second spacewalk in under a week, Fyodor
Yurchikhin and Aleksandr Misurkin struggled to install the 6-foot
telescope mount. It appeared as though the platform was misaligned
because of improper assembly on the ground, which could prevent the
future telescope from pointing in the right direction.

Russian Mission Control instructed the spacewalkers to rotate the
device, then debated for several more minutes what to do. Ultimately,
flight controllers told the cosmonauts to give up and bring the
platform back inside. "We have different objectives. We cannot spend a
lot of time here," one of the cosmonauts complained.

Earlier, the spacewalkers had no problem removing and bagging a laser
communication experiment, even though it was tough working in that
location. The experiment needed to come off to make room for the
telescope system. On Monday, an antenna cover came off and floated
away. Russian space officials wanted to know which antenna lost its
protective shield. The spacewalkers double-checked the remaining covers
to make sure they were secure. At least two were loose, one by a lot.
(8/22)

Embry-Riddle Chancellor
Appointed to Advise Florida's First Online Learning Institute
(Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Worldwide Chancellor John R.
Watret has been appointed to the advisory board for Florida’s first
comprehensive online learning institute. Dr. Watret was appointed to
serve by the State University System of Florida’s Board of Governors.
He and four other board members will advise the institute as it works
to expand online baccalaureate degree offerings at qualified state
institutions in Florida. (8/22)

Asteroid Initiative Idea
Synthesis Workshop Set for Sept. 30 in Houston (Source:
Parabolic Arc)
After receiving more than 400 responses to the Asteroid Initiative RFI,
NASA continues to review the submissions received from industry,
scientists, engineers, and space enthusiasts worldwide.

As a follow up to the RFI, we will invite many of the submitters to
share their ideas for discussion with the broader Asteroid Initiative
community during an idea synthesis workshop at the Lunar and Planetary
Institute in Houston Texas, Sept. 30 – Oct. 2. Presenter invitations
will be issued on Monday, Aug. 19, and presenters may participate in
person at LPI or virtually. Virtual participation options will also be
available for the public. (8/22)

Drop-Test of Japanese
Supersonic Craft Fails (Source: America Space)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the first
drop test conducted as part of its “Drop test for Simplified Evaluation
of Non-symmetrically Distributed sonic boom” (D-SEND#2) program on Aug.
16 at Sweden's Esrange Space Center was unsuccessful. After separation
from a balloon, the supersonic airplane model deviated from the
expected flight path about 12 kilometers short of the targeted boom
measurement area, and reached the ground about 8 kilometers short of
the target area.

Although JAXA’s sonic boom measurement system worked properly and
captured the sonic boom, it was confirmed that the pressure waveform
measured was not from the expected nominal flight. The cause of the
flight deviation remains under investigation by a team led by the
director of the Program Management and Integration Department of the
Institute of Aeronautical Technology. JAXA decided to postpone its
second drop test. (8/22)

The Ethics of
Interstellar Alien Encounters (Source: Discovery)
During the Starship Congress last week in Dallas, Texas, discussions
focused on the myriad of topics associated with humans pushing into
space and, ultimately, becoming an interstellar civilization. It
quickly became apparent that if you think on a large enough scale, over
a vast enough time frame, pushing humanity deeper into the galaxy is
not a sci-fi notion, it’s an evolutionary imperative.

But let us assume for a minute that we will overcome the huge
technological challenges of propelling starships to neighboring star
systems and begin a new age of galactic colonization. Let us also
assume that the profound question “Are we alone?” will be answered. We
will have clawed our way to the stars to find that life is simply a
chemical complication and, given the correct conditions, biology is
possible anywhere. Click here.
(8/22)

SGS Official Makes Case
for a Landsat Block Buy (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government should consider ordering a pair of Landsat
spacecraft to ensure at least another two decades of continuous
collection of medium-resolution land imagery, according to the head of
the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) center responsible for operating the
recently launched Landsat 8 and processing and distributing its data
worldwide.

“I like the idea of being able to do a block buy,” said Frank Kelly,
director of the Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center. A
block buy is an obvious way to avoid disrupting the record of
medium-resolution Earth observations the Landsat program has built up
during the last 40 years, Kelly said. He said the user community has
already identified one of its top priorities for the program:
collecting Landsat images once every eight days.

That is only possible when there are two Landsat satellites on orbit,
as there are today with Landsat 7 and Landsat 8. When NASA announced it
would begin studying with USGS a long-term Landsat strategy, it said
everything would be on the table, including hosted payload
arrangements, commercial data buys, and partnerships with international
space agencies whose satellites might be collecting Landsat-like
images. The results of the study the two agencies are conducting will
be published next August, Kelly said. (8/21)

Dual SLS Launch Campaign
Required for NASA’s Lunar Return (Source:
NasaSpaceFlight.com)
A return to the surface of the Moon would require two Space Launch
System (SLS) rockets launching over half a year apart, with a four
person crew being transported to the Lunar surface on a multi-billion
dollar Lander for a seven day sortie mission. The overview, provided in
the latest Concept Of Operations (CONOPS) document, all-but rules out
the option based on cost estimates alone.

Often cited as the preferred opening exploration option by numerous
lawmakers, a return to the surface of the Moon would realign NASA with
the plan outlined in the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), before the
aborted Constellation Program (CxP) failed to deliver on its goals.
Click here.
(8/21)

Construction of Russia’s
Vostochny Spaceport to be Broadcast Live on Internet
(Source: Itar-Tass)
Web cameras will be installed at the construction site where Russia is
building its new Vostochny spaceport in the Far East, Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. The web cameras will provide 24-hour live
broadcasts from the construction site. Rogozin criticised the Ministry
for Regional Development and the Spetsstroy Federal Agency for Special
Construction Projects for failure to implement orders concerning the
construction of the spaceport. (8/21)

NASA Reactivates WISE
Spacecraft for Asteroid Search (Source: SpaceToday.net)
WISE spacecraft illustration (NASA) NASA announced Wednesday it is
reactivating a dormant space telescope to resume its search for near
Earth objects (NEOs). The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
spacecraft will be turned back on next month for a three-year mission
to search for and study NEOs under a project called NEOWISE. Scientists
expect WISE's 40-centimeter telescope and instruments will be able to
discover 150 NEOs and characterize 2,000 others, data which could help
NASA identify a target for its proposed asteroid redirect mission.
(8/21)

Former Astronaut Gordon
Fullerton Passes Away (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Gordon Fullerton, a former astronaut who flew on two shuttle missions
as well as approach and landing tests of the shuttle, passed away at
the age of 76. Fullerton jointed the NASA astronaut corps in 1969 after
the Air Force canceled its Manned Orbiting Laboratory spaceflight
program. He piloted the shuttle Enterprise during approach and landing
tests of the orbiter at Edwards Air Force Base in 1977. He was pilot on
the STS-3 shuttle mission in 1982, landing Columbia at White Sands in
New Mexico when heavy rains prevented a landing at Edwards. (8/22)

Editorial: SpaceX Could
Boost South Texas Region (Source: The Monitor)
The quiet purchase of land by SpaceX in South Texas holds infinite
growth possibilities for the Rio Grande Region if this privately-owned
leader in space travel were to build a spaceport near Boca Chica Beach
in Cameron County. The economic implications are astronomical in terms
of how the Valley, and undoubtedly the entire state of Texas, could
benefit from such a facility.

If this happens, Texas — specifically South Texas — would be among only
a handful of launch sites in the U.S. Currently, Florida and California
have a corner on the market with most launches taking place from Cape
Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base. This would be the first launch
pad in our state and undoubtedly make us the envy of other states. But
it isn’t a lock because SpaceX is rumored to be considering sites in
Puerto Rico, Florida and Georgia.

So it’s incumbent on Texas and local officials to do what they can to
lure SpaceX here — as long as environmental considerations and
safeguards are put in place to protect our fragile Gulf Coast. The
possibility for a South Texas site dates back to a hot, sunny afternoon
in McGregor, Texas, on June 13, 2012, when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
divulged he was going to pursue ventures in South Texas. And now, we
hope he will make good on that promise. (8/22)

Aggie Astronaut
Encourages Students to Be Persistent (Source: The Eagle)
Texas A&M's Dwight Look College of Engineering will welcome an
incoming class of approximately 2,300 students when classes start Aug.
26. Before breaking into their books, however, more than 50 students
got some advice from the Aggie Astronaut Mike Fossum, who has logged
more than 194 days in space, during Wednesday's Engineering New Student
Welcome.

Fossum, a 1980 mechanical engineering graduate, encouraged students to
work hard to fulfill their dreams "because a dream by itself, it's just
fleeting. It has no substance." "To make it come true, you've got to
come up with a plan, you've got to work it and you've got to find a way
every day to move just a step closer," he said. When Lakshmi Nathan, a
21-year-old chemical engineering major expecting to graduate in
December, asked Fossum to identify the skill he valued the most, he
responded with "persistence in everything." (8/22)

Rocks in Space
(Source: New York Times)
So, which would you rather do: Capture an asteroid or go back to the
moon? This is one of the many interesting issues facing Congress that
we probably will not have time to debate once Congress actually comes
back next month. Then it’ll be nothing but Obamacare and government
shutdowns and the occasional discussion about whether Senator Ted Cruz
has managed to dispose of his recently discovered dual Canadian
citizenship.

Which I am personally looking forward to a lot. But today let’s
consider the American space program. Space exploration is one of the
extremely few areas in which there is a lot of bipartisan agreement in
Washington. For instance, both parties believe that the U.S. should be
trying to get to Mars. Eventually. Nobody thinks this will happen
anytime soon — partly because the technology is so challenging and
partly because Congress keeps cutting the space budget.

The third point of wide bipartisan agreement is that nobody wants their
constituents to be clobbered by an asteroid. Really, this is a
priority. The Obama administration is currently promoting an “asteroid
grand challenge,” in which we’re invited “to find all asteroid threats
to human populations” and figure out what to do about them. And — this
is good news, people — we’ve already pinpointed about 95 percent of all
the rocks in the solar system that are of planet-mashing size. Click here.
(8/22)

NASA Extends Life of
Gamma-Ray Hunting Fermi Space Telescope (Source: Space.com)
A NASA space telescope tasked with probing the most powerful explosions
in the universe has a new lease on life. NASA officials said Wednesday
that they have officially extended the lifetime of the Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope, which has just completed its initial five-year
mission. The new mission phase will allow Fermi telescope scientists to
further probe the Milky Way in search of gamma-ray signals from elusive
dark matter. (8/22)

Highest-Ever Resolution
Photos of the Night Sky (Source: Carnegie)
A team of astronomers from three institutions has developed a new type
of telescope camera that makes higher resolution images than ever
before, the culmination of 20 years of effort. The team has been
developing this technology at telescope observatories in Arizona and
now has deployed the latest version of these cameras in the high desert
of Chile at the Magellan 6.5m (21 foot) telescope.

Carnegie’s Alan Uomoto and Tyson Hare, joined by a team of researchers
from the University of Arizona and Arcetri Observatory in Italy, will
publish three papers containing the highest-resolution images ever
taken, as well as observations that answer questions about planetary
formation, in The Astrophysical Journal. (8/21)

KSC Visitor Complex
Reopened After Water Main Rupture (Source: Florida Today)
Full admission and water services have been restored to Kennedy Space
Center Visitor Complex after a water main rupture, according to a press
release. NASA contractors ruptured the water main while installing new
lines Tuesday, cutting off water and forcing the Visitor Complex to
offer reduced admission. The bus tour was still offered and the Apollo
/ Saturn V Center was fully operational. (8/22)

Russian Aerospace
Industry Needs State Help (Source: RIA Novosti)
The Russian space industry is plagued by such a great number of
problems that the government cannot afford to leave it to its own
devices, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. “Constant
[government] assistance is needed to ultimately break the vicious
circle of accidents and failures,” Rogozin, who oversees the defense
and aerospace sectors, said. He earlier heavily criticized Russia’s
space industry, lambasting technical incompetence and calling for
structural reform across the whole sector. (8/22)

The Birth of a Star,
Captured in Stunning Detail (Source: LA Times)
Astronomers have captured stunning images of a star in the process of
being born, and they are as beautiful as they are counterintuitive. In
the images, you are not seeing the young star itself, but rather
massive jets of gases such as carbon monoxide and ionized oxygen that
are shooting away from the forming star at speeds of up to 1 million
kilometers per hour (about 621,000 mph). Click here.
(8/21)

Will 'Space Junk' Problem
Intensify? (Source: Space Daily)
The United States is planning to shut down a key component of its space
surveillance network that tracks satellites and "space junk" orbiting
the Earth. As a result, satellite launches and flights to the
International Space Station (ISS) may involve a higher degree of risk.
The current Air Force Space Surveillance System known as Space Fence
consists of three two-mile-long transmitter antennae and six receivers
in the south of the country. It has been scanning the near-earth space
for any orbital objects flying over America since the 1960s.

The Air Force Command has decided not to prolong a contract with the
system's current operator. The company has until October 1 to remove
its staff from all of the Space Fence facilities, at which point are
going to be switched off. So far, it's unclear whether the system will
be dismantled. The Space Fence can detect space objects as small as 10
cm (four inches) in diameter and thousands of larger objects, including
lots space debris circling our planet and posing a serious threat to
satellites and the ISS. (8/21)

Air Force Sets March 2014
Target for Space Fence Award (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force will award an overdue contract for its
next-generation space-object tracking system in March 2014, more than a
year later than originally planned. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have
developed competing designs for the next-generation Space Fence, a
system of ground-based radars that would be capable of tracking greater
numbers of smaller objects than the current system, which is slated to
be shut down in September.

Award of a full-scale Space Fence development contract had been
expected in 2012 or early 2013, but in July, Gen. William Shelton,
commander of Air Force Space Command, said the multibillion-dollar
project is being held up due to a Pentagon review of its major
acquisition programs. (8/21)

Japan Space Agency
Unveils New Epsilon Rocket (Source: Space Daily)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency unveiled its new solid-fuel
rocket Epsilon before its launch with a scientific satellite next week.
Epsilon, a three-stage rocket with 24.4 meter in length, 2.6 meters in
diameter and 91 ton in weight, is to be launched from the state-run
agency's Uchinoura Space Center in southwestern prefecture of
Kagoshima. The rocket is a successor of the M-5 rocket that was retired
in 2006 and is planned to carry a telescope named SPRINT-A, world's
first space telescope for remote observation of planets. (8/21)

High-Speed Tests
Demonstrate Space Penetrator Concept (Source: Space Daily)
Tests are being carried out under a technology development program for
planetary penetrators to assess the feasibility of delivering
instrument packages to the subsurface of a planet or icy satellite at
high speed. Traditionally, rovers or landers are delivered to the
surface of a planet or moon, where a slow, careful descent is required,
and where drilling or digging into the subsurface requires additional
payload.

But engineers are looking at an alternative way to access the
subsurface. Planetary penetrators delivered directly into the top 3
metres of the surface of a planet or moon offers such an alternative.
At around 20 kilograms each, a suite of penetrators with identical
payloads could be deployed across a wide surface area to yield key
information about the body's interior. (8/21)

Smallsats Finding New
Applications (Source: Aviation Week)
Small, low-cost satellites are coming into their own as a niche
industry serving commercial and government markets, building on the
free development work provided by a generation of engineering students
at places like California Polytechnic State University and Morehead
State University in Kentucky.

It is now clear that smallsat technology is leapfrogging beyond the
classroom. No longer just a hands-on teaching tool, miniature
spacecraft are in serious development as weather monitors, Earth- and
space-observation telescopes and a host of scientific probes. Click here.
(8/21)

Embry-Riddle Faculty,
Students Take Spaceport Field Trip for New Space Degree
(Source: SPACErePORT)
Faculty and students involved in Embry-Riddle's new Commercial Space
Operations bachelors degree program are taking their first field trip
to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Friday. With support from Space
Florida, the group will be visting facilities for commercial, NASA, and
Air Force space programs. (8/22)

NASA Selects Advanced
Research and Technology Contract (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Universities Space Research Association (USRA) of
Columbia, Md., to support research and technology efforts at the
agency's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. This cost-plus-fixed fee
indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum value
of $65 million during a 4 1/2-year performance period beginning Oct. 1.
(8/21)

NASA Awards Contract for
Project and Engineering Support (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Millennium Engineering and Integration Co. of
Arlington, Va., to support flight and mission projects, and research
and development at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,
Calif. The cost-plus-fixed-fee hybrid contract has a potential value of
$235 million and will include options and indefinite-delivery,
indefinite-quantity task orders. The contract begins Oct. 1 with a
30-day phase-in and one-year base period followed by four one-year
options. (8/21)

NASA Awards Human Health
and Performance Contract to SAIC (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
of McLean, Va., to provide biomedical, medical and health services in
support of all human spaceflight programs at the agency's Johnson Space
Center in Houston. The contract begins Oct. 1 and has a maximum
potential value of $1.76 billion, including a five-year base period and
two option periods that could extend the contract through 2023.

The new human health and performance contract will support many NASA
programs and offices including the International Space Station, Orion,
Advanced Exploration Systems, Human Research, Commercial Crew and
Cargo, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. (8/21)

Data Demand Drives
Cubesat Ground Network (Source: Aviation Week)
The groundswell of cubesat projects underway at universities,
government labs and private companies worldwide promises to generate
more data than the ad hoc communications systems originally devised for
the tiny birds can handle.

But just as the former graduate students who pioneered cubesats a
couple of decades ago are finding ways to advance their small-space
technology as entrepreneurs, teachers and corporate engineers, the
community is starting to grapple with the flow of data expected to be
generated as short-lived cubesats give way to swarms of tiny spacecraft
carrying cameras, telescopes and other high-data sensors.

When cubesats were getting started as relatively inexpensive teaching
tools for engineering professors canny enough to see the lure for
prospective students of hands-on experience with real spacecraft,
communication with the ground was almost secondary. Typically, each
student mission devised its own communications link, usually with a
one-off transmitter designed to work on an amateur-radio frequency.
That held the cost down at both ends, and it met the relatively simple
needs of the day. Click here.
(8/21)

Ukraine, Russia to Hold
Meeting on Resumption of Dnepr Launches (Source: Kyev Post)
Ukraine and Russia are preparing a meeting of their interagency
commission as part of the Aug. 22 launch of a Dnepr rocket carrying
South Korea's KompSat-5 spacecraft from the Yasny launch site. A
meeting of a bilateral interagency commission, which will focus on the
resumption of commercial launches of small satellites with the help of
the Dnepr rocket, is scheduled for August 20-24 in Russia. (8/21)

Lest We Forget - Space is
a Harsh Frontier, Warns Astronaut (Source: Channel 4)
Luca Parmitano, vividly recalls his mission with partner Christopher
Cassidy on 16 July, when he felt "the unexpected sensation of water" at
the back of his neck. "At first, we're both convinced that it must be
drinking water from my flask that has leaked out through the straw, or
else it's sweat. But I think the liquid is too cold to be sweat, and
more importantly, I can feel it increasing."

With something obviously going wrong, the spacewalk was already being
aborted, but the situation for Parmitano was getting worse: "As I turn
'upside-down', two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see -
already compromised by the water - completely vanishes, making my eyes
useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose - a really awful
sensation that I make worse by my vain attempts to move the water by
shaking my head. (8/21)

Donning the DIY Suit –
Space Suit Session Day 03 (Source: WIRED)
Copenhagen Suborbitals is a DIY spaceflight company in the process of
designing a space capsule for manned suborbital spaceflight. Here,
founder Kristian von Bengtson and his collaborators are in the process
of testing a specially designed spacesuit and taking rad pictures.
Click here.
(8/21)

Largest Piece So Far of
Chelyabinsk Meteorite Found (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russian scientists have confirmed the authenticity of a 3.4-kilogram
(7.5-pound) fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite – the largest piece
found so far from the meteorite that hit the Urals region in February.
An unnamed resident of the Chelyabinsk region in Russia’s Urals found
the fragment near the village of Timiryazevsky and submitted it for
analysis and authentication to Chelyabinsk State University. (8/21)

Stars' Twinkle Reveals
Potential for Habitable Worlds (Source: Discovery)
In 1806, English poet Jane Taylor famously lamented that a little
star’s twinkle, twinkle left her wondering what it was. Fast-forward
207 years and a new analysis of starlight collected by NASA’s Kepler
space telescope shows patterns in the flicker that are directly tied to
the amount of boiling taking place on a star’s surface, a key indicator
of its size, mass and evolutionary state.

That information, in turn, reveals volumes about any orbiting planets,
including those fortuitously positioned from their parent stars for
liquid surface water -- apparently a key ingredient for life.
“Everything you know about planets is tied to what you know about the
host star,” Fabienne Bastien, an astronomy graduate student at
Vanderbilt University, told Discovery News.

Bastien, who is working on a doctoral dissertation, was analyzing
archived Kepler data for a totally different reason when she and
colleagues chanced upon strange patterns in the data that they didn’t
understand. “It was a complete surprise,” Bastien said. It turns out
the pattern provides a quick and relatively reliable way to determine a
star’s evolutionary state. (8/21)